1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to thermally regenerated, reciprocating internal combustion engines that store the exhaust heat and return it to the engine cycle to do work.
2. Description of Prior Art
Thermal regeneration is the capturing of waste heat from a thermodynamic cycle (or a heat engine operating on some thermodynamic cycle), and the utilization of that energy within the cycle or engine to improve the cycle or engine's performance. This is commonly done with many heat engines including Stirling engines, gas turbines, and Rankine cycle devices. In a gas turbine the exhaust heat coming out of the exhaust is transferred to the air leaving the compressor and going into the combustor. This way it is not necessary to add as much heat (fuel) in the combustor to raise the air temperature to the desired turbine inlet temperature. This means that the same work is accomplished but less fuel is used. The automobile and trick gas turbines use rotating regenerators to transfer energy from the exhaust gases to the compressed air.
The problem encountered in previous regenerators in reciprocating internal combustion engines is: the temperature from the combustion process destroys the regenerator unless the temperature is kept low or the regenerator is cooled. Another problem is: the fluid volume of the regenerator enters into the cycle performance.